The rapid growth of computer networks has created new modalities of communication over these computer networks. These new modalities include, among others, email, chat (i.e., instant messaging), short message service (“SMS”), and voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”). In conventional implementations, a dedicated user interface is provided for each modality. For example, a first user interface may be provided enabling a user to send an email message, while a second user interface may be provided enabling a user to chat by transmitting and receiving instant messages. In many cases, the first user interface is provided in an entirely separate window than the second user interface, thereby causing the user to alternate, sometimes awkwardly, between windows in order to send an email and to chat at the same time.
Further, communications through the first interface are typically mutually exclusive from communications through the second interface. For example, an email exchange between two users bears no relation to a chat exchange between the same two users, even if the email exchange and the chat exchange occur at the same time. As such, users are generally responsible for maintaining communications between multiple modalities, thereby creating additional challenges with respect to communicating across multiple modalities.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.